Casey Stoner eased the disappointment of losing his world title with victory in the Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.

Having lost his crown in Japan to arch rival Valentino Rossi last time out, the Australian dominated the race from start to finish to bring his Ducati Marlboro home comfortably ahead of Rossi's Fiat Yamaha and Nicky Hayden, who finished third for Repsol Honda.

Jorge Lorenzo claimed fourth ahead of Shinya Nakano, who snatched fifth right at the end. James Toseland gamely battled to hold on to a podium position for a sizeable portion of the race before succumbing to the superior machinery of his rivals and eventually finished sixth.

Pole-sitter Stoner led the field away from the grid with Hayden and Dani Pedrosa in pursuit before the Spaniard ran wide and crashed out on the first lap, promoting Toseland to third.

Stoner and Hayden swapped fastest laps as the pair streaked away from the rest of the field. Newly-crowned world champion Rossi, meanwhile, was carving his way through the field having started 12th following a crash in qualifying on Saturday.

Rossi had moved up to fifth by lap four and was closing in on Toseland and Lorenzo, who were battling for third. Stoner, meanwhile, was finding it difficult to shake Hayden's Repsol Honda at the head of the field.

Rossi dispatched Lorenzo with ease and was soon applying heavy pressure to the back of Toseland's Tech 3 Yamaha before passing the Brit on lap seven.

However, Toseland would not lie down and reclaimed third the following lap going into turn one. Stoner, meanwhile, began to ease away from Hayden and had opened up a gap of just over a second with 10 laps completed.

Rossi briefly passed Toseland at the start of lap 11 only for the latter to fight right back at the very next corner. However, the Italian was not to be denied and eventually claimed the place later in the lap.

No such dramas for Stoner though as the Australian's Ducati made serene progress at the front and he led Hayden by over four seconds with 10 laps to go. The American, though, was still managing to maintain a five-second gap back to Rossi.

But the Italian began to eat into Hayden's cushion as the race wound down

Toseland, meanwhile, was doing an excellent job of fending off Lorenzo. However, the 28-year-old lost out with three laps left as his duel with Lorenzo allowed Andrea Davizioso to blaze past into fourth before Lorenzo claimed fifth.

The Spaniard then passed Davizioso before Rossi, who by now had chased down Hayden, took second from the American on the last lap. Nakano took advantage of a Davizioso slip to nick fifth with the Italian coming in seventh behind Toseland.

All of which was of little concern to Stoner, who cruised to victory in his home grand prix by over six seconds.

"We've had a bit of an up and down weekend but I was confident for the race," said Stoner.

"Nicky (Hayden) was pressing me at the start but he dropped off and I could build an advantage.

"My two crashes is when we really lost the championship but Valentino's ridden really well this season."

Rossi was delighted with his second place.

"For me it was a very exciting race, I couldn't relax for a second," he said.

"Starting on the fourth row is very difficult but I was confident we had a good pace. The battle with Toseland was very tough but then I saw Nicky coming closer lap by lap. Second is the best result we could get."

Hayden added: "The beginning was really fun but we ran into problems later in the race. It was a bit of a gamble with tyre choice but I went a lot faster in the race than I did all weekend."